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The Fight for the Moral High Ground
The decadent West takes on Vladimir Putin’s empire of evil.
Back in the days of my youth there was a protest song that went: “And it’s 1,2,3, what are we fighting for? Don’t ask me I don’t give a damn, the next stop is Vietnam.”
When it comes to the foreign affairs of the nation, there haven’t been too many moments of bright moral clarity in all the decades since.
You can argue about the specific low points of that long drought, but one that certainly plumbed the depths was the answer given by the former U.S. president — the guy whose job description was supposed to include Leader of the Free World — when asked about the murderous policies of the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin. “There are a lot of killers,” Mr. Trump said with his trademark smirk. “You think our country’s so innocent?”
It’s not too hard to draw a line from that unconditional moral surrender to Putin’s assumption that the freedom-loving countries of the world would squeeze their eyes shut while he had his way with Ukraine.
So a country known for pretty streets filled with coffee shops and pleasant people, who not so long ago felt carefree enough to elect a comedian to be their president, is now filling the world’s TV screens with horrific images of burned-out hospitals and…
